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  Hyper dispersion pulse compressor for chirped pulse amplification systemsRelated Patent Categories: Coherent Light Generators, Particular Beam Control Device, Control Of Pulse CharacteristicsThe Patent Description & Claims data below is from USPTO Patent Application 20060050750. Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/582,752 filed Jun. 24, 2004 and titled "Hyper Dispersion Pulse Compressor For Chirped Pulse Amplification Systems" and is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] 1. Field of the Invention [0004] The present invention provides ultra-intense laser pulses capable of interacting with matter, and more specifically, it relates to a chirped pulse amplification system and a method that includes lengthening a pulse's duration by often using cascaded pairs of gratings so as to increase the angular dispersion and produce a high power, short pulse. [0005] 2. Description of Related Art [0006] The conventional method for circumventing optical damage due to amplification of high intensity pulsed sources is accomplished by chirped pulse amplification (i.e., CPA). [0007] Chirped pulse amplification originated 60 years ago during the development of microwave radar. In the optical case, one avoids intensity-dependent damage by increasing the input temporal pulse duration prior to amplification by passing an input pulse through a frequency-dependent delay line. Such a dispersive delay line often includes prisms or gratings to separate the spectral content of the pulse and in doing so produce an optical path difference for different spectral components and thus stretch the pulses temporally prior to amplification and compress them afterwards. By amplifying a stretched pulse, higher peak intensity can be achieved without reaching the damage threshold of the amplifying material. [0008] The required footprint of CPA pulse compressors and stretchers is approximately inversely proportional to the dispersion of the dispersive element and to the bandwidth of the pulse being stretched. For a given wavelength, however, the dispersion of a grating is a function of the groove density, which cannot be arbitrarily increased and still obtain a solution to the grating equation. Thus the dispersion of the gratings is limited, and the footprint is determined by the bandwidth of the pulses being stretched. [0009] For CPA of pulses with transform-limited pulse widths in the picosecond regime, where the bandwidth of the pulse is low, grating compressors with grating separations of several meters are not uncommon, and prism compressors are impractical due to their even lower dispersion and greater length. Even with grating-based compressors, application of CPA to materials such as Nd;YAG and Nd:YLF, whose bandwidth limits compressed pulse durations to of order of about 5 ps or greater requires impractically large grating separations or extensive folding of the optical path. [0010] Accordingly, a need exists for a configuration that can increase CPA compressor dispersion at high efficiency use angles so as to produce compact configurations. The present invention is directed to such a need. SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION [0011] Accordingly, the present invention provides a laser pulse compressor that utilizes at least one efficient diffraction grating configured to disperse and amplify the angular dispersion of introduced frequency chirped pulses and configured to remove the frequency chirp from said pulses so as to compress temporally said one or more pulses and provide for a smaller compressor footprint. [0012] Another aspect of the present invention provides a system method of compressing pulses that includes: receiving from a source one or more temporally stretched optical pulses having a predetermined frequency chirp, angularly dispersing the frequency content of the pulses; amplifying the angular dispersion of the one or more pulses; providing a collimated and spatially dispersed pulse spectrum of the amplified angularly dispersed frequency content of the one or more pulses; and passing the collimated and spatially dispersed pulse spectrum back through the system via an optical reflector so as to remove the spatial dispersed pulse spectrum, further reduce a system footprint and produce on or more predetermined temporally compressed pulses. [0013] Accordingly, the present apparatus and method provide for arrangements that reduce the footprint of pulse compressors used in chirped pulse amplification (CPA) systems. Such arrangements enable the practical application of CPA configurations to common high-gain but narrow-bandwidth media such as, but not limited to, Nd:YAG and Nd:YLF, and greatly simplify the generation of transform-limited, e.g., about 1 ps to about 10 ps high-energy pulses, for precision micromachining, x-ray generation, lidar, gamma-ray generation, etc. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS [0014] The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and form a part of the disclosure, illustrate an embodiment of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. [0015] FIG. 1 illustrates a beneficial Hyper-dispersion pulse compressor. [0016] FIG. 2 shows another example arrangement of a Hyper-dispersion pulse compressor utilizing a pair of gratings. [0017] FIG. 3 shows another example arrangement of a Hyper-dispersion pulse compressor utilizing a single grating. [0018] FIG. 4(a) shows group-delay dispersion (GDD) versus L.sub.23 gratings separations. [0019] FIG. 4(b) shows third-order dispersion (TOD) versus L.sub.23 gratings separations. [0020] FIG. 4(c) shows the ratio of the TOD to the GDD. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION Continue reading... Full patent description for Hyper dispersion pulse compressor for chirped pulse amplification systems Brief Patent Description - Full Patent Description - Patent Application Claims Click on the above for other options relating to this Hyper dispersion pulse compressor for chirped pulse amplification systems patent application. ###  How KEYWORD MONITOR works... a FREE service from FreshPatents1. Sign up (takes 30 seconds). 2. Fill in the keywords to be monitored. 3. Each week you receive an email with patent applications related to your keywords. Start now! - Receive info on patent apps like Hyper dispersion pulse compressor for chirped pulse amplification systems or other areas of interest. ### Previous Patent Application: Method and apparatus for generating mid and long ir wavelength radiation Next Patent Application: Optical transmission device for controlling optical level of wavelength multiplexed light and method thereof Industry Class: Coherent light generators ### FreshPatents.com Support Thank you for viewing the Hyper dispersion pulse compressor for chirped pulse amplification systems patent info. IP-related news and info Results in 0.12459 seconds Other interesting Feshpatents.com categories: Accenture , Agouron Pharmaceuticals , Amgen , AT&T , Bausch & Lomb , Callaway Golf |
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